St. Petersburg Bowl To Become Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl

Newly re-branded Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl set for Dec. 21

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (August 23, 2017) – ESPN Events, a division of ESPN, has announced Bad Boy Mowers as the new title sponsor for the annual college football postseason game played in St. Petersburg (Fla.). Bad Boy Mowers will serve as the title sponsor through the 2019 season. Beginning with this year’s game, the bowl will now be known as the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl. The title sponsorship with Bad Boy Mowers was brokered by Denver-based Impression Sports & Entertainment.

“We are extremely excited to have a new partnership with Bad Boy Mowers on the 10th Anniversary of our bowl game,” said Brett Dulaney, Executive Director of the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl. “The leadership of Bad Boy Mowers has been terrific to work with and we look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship. One of our main goals is to help them grow their brand in Florida. As many people know, there are more than 20 million people in our great state and over 5 million people in the Tampa Bay community. We look forward to our state and our community embracing Bad Boy Mowers and their products.”

“The whole Bad Boy Mowers team is excited to take the field as title sponsor of the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl,” said Lennie Foree, Director of Marketing for Bad Boy Mowers. “We’ve been so impressed by the entire organization and their mission to deliver what we believe will be an exciting bowl for college football fans across the country. This is a great opportunity for us to introduce so many more folks to our mowers and Bad Boy Country.”

Pete Derzis, Senior Vice President of College Sports Programming & ESPN Events, added, “With the state of Florida being a college football hotbed, finding an emerging brand that can effectively use the platform to grow their business and support the sport provides a win-win opportunity for all. Bad Boy Mowers does that, and more, for the community and the Tampa Bay area. We are excited and looking forward to another great bowl season.”
In addition to announcing a new title sponsor today, the bowl game revealed new branding, featuring the Gasparilla name and a new color scheme. For more than a century the Gasparilla name has enjoyed great popularity in the Tampa Bay region (Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Tampa). Gasparilla is the nickname for legendary pirate, Jose Gaspar, who led his crew of swashbucklers on many missions on the coastal waters of West Florida during the 18th and early 19th centuries. There are numerous wildly popular annual events held in the Tampa Bay region using the Gasparilla name.

“This year is the 10th anniversary of our bowl game and we’re very lucky to be one of the communities that host a bowl game each year,” said Dulaney. “As we have continued to grow, we wanted to create a more regional feel.”

Dulaney added, “One of our goals with the rebrand is to create a bigger footprint for ourselves and our title sponsor. We feel this Gasparilla rebrand will accomplish this goal. This rebrand not only assists our title sponsor, but also our great community and all of the other businesses and patrons who support us.”
The 2017 Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl game will be played on Thursday, Dec. 21, at 8 p.m. ET at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. Tickets will go on sale later this year. To inquire on group tickets and suite packages, please call the bowl office at 727.290.9865.

Website: www.GasparillaBowl.com
Twitter: @GasparillaBowl
Hashtag: #InvadeTheBay

About Bad Boy Mowers
Bad Boy Mowers, located in the heart of the Ozark Mountains in Batesville, Arkansas, has built its reputation on delivering a better zero-turn mower for a better value, and is currently celebrating its 15th year of business. Bad Boy’s reputation for reliability, power and durability has been built into every mower made from the very beginning. Delivering more innovation, from the patented Swing-Away™ design, EZ-Ride™ and Armor-Tek 5 Deck™ advantages, and coupled with its legendary build strength, every Bad Boy Mower is designed to be easy to operate, easy to maintain and last for years with its ruggedness, power and reliability. Bad Boy Mowers is sold through a nationwide dealer network (www.badboymowers.com).